Sun's magnetic 'heartbeat' revealed

Modeling 'not easy to do in a fluid system like that'

Published: 04/04/2013 at 4:53 PM

(Space.com) A magnetic “solar heartbeat” beats deep in the sun’s interior, generating energy that leads to solar flares and sunspots, according to new research.

A new supercomputer simulation, described in the April 4 edition of the journal Science, probes the sun’s periodic magnetic field reversals. Every 40 years, according to the model, the sun’s zonal magnetic field bands switch their orientation, or polarity.